IN18 – Rice, Condoleezza.  Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008) ) 국익에 대한 재고찰: 새로운 세계를 위한 미국의 현실주의 - Click here for available text on the Internet

The secretary of state offers her defining take on Iraq, Iran, democracy promotion, and American foreign policy in general.

IN19 – SOFT POWER IN ASIA: RESULTS OF A 2008 MULTINATIONAL SURVEY OF PUBLIC OPINION (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs in partnership with the East Asia Institute, June 17, 2008, 18 pages) 아시아의 소프트파워: 2008년 다국적 여론조사 결과 - Click here for available text on the Internet

The study, which is based on polls carried out by the two organizations in China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, United States, and Vietnam, reveals that Asian and U.S. perceptions of China’s soft power generally trail those of the United States and Japan. These perceptions persist despite China’s strong economic growth and relationships in Asia and its efforts to expand its international influence including the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.

The author, with the political science department at the University of California at Los Angeles, argues that no question is more fundamental for devising an effective counterterrorism strategy than motives for terrorist groups; we cannot expect to make terrorism unprofitable without knowing the incentive structure of its practitioners.  The strategic model - the dominant paradigm in terrorism studies - posits that terrorists are political utility maximizers.  According to this view, which has widespread currency in the policy community, individuals resort to terrorism when the expected gains outweigh the expected benefits of alternative forms of protest.  The most common strategies in fighting terrorism are a strict no-concessions policy, appeasement, or democracy promotion.  Despite its policy relevance, the strategic model has not been tested; this is the first study to assess its empirical validity.  The actual record of terrorist behavior does not conform to the strategic model’s premise that terrorist are rational actors primarily motivated to achieving political ends; the evidence is that terrorists use terrorism primarily to develop strong affective ties with fellow terrorists.  The author believes that a major shift in terrorism studies and approaches to fighting terrorism are needed.

IN21 - Johnson, Thomas H.; Mason, M. Chris.  NO SIGN UNTIL THE BURST OF FIRE: UNDERSTANDING THE PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN FRONTIER  (International Security, vol. 32, no. 4, Spring 2008, pp. 41-77) 미국의 딜레마: 파키스탄-아프가니스탄의 국경 이해하기 - Contact IRC for print copy

The authors assert that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area has become the most dangerous frontier on earth and the most challenging for U.S. national security interests.  The portion of the border region that is home to extremist groups such the Taliban and al-Qaida coincides almost exactly with the area overwhelmingly dominated by the Pashtun tribes.  The fact that most of Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s violent religious extremism, and with it much of the counterterrorism challenge to the U.S., are contained within a single ethno-linguistic group, has not been fully grasped by U.S. policymakers.  The threat to long-term U.S. security interests in this area is a unique cultural problem.  In both southern Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, the U.S. and the international community should be doing everything in their means to empower the tribal elders and restore balance to a tribal/cultural system that has been disintegrating since the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

EC16 – THE PROPOSED U.S.-SOUTH KOREA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (KORUS FTA): PROVISIONS AND IMPLICATIONS  (CRS Report for Congress, Updated May 29, 2008) 한미 자유무역협정 (KORUS FTA): 규정과 그 의미 - Click here for available text on the Internet

This report is designed to assist Members of the 110th Congress as they consider the costs and benefits of the KORUS FTA. It examines the provisions KORUS FTA in the context of the overall U.S.-South Korean economic relationship, U.S. objectives, and South Korean objectives.

EC17 - RISING FOOD PRICES IN EAST ASIA: CHALLENGES AND POLICY OPTIONS (The World Bank, May 2008, 18 pages) 동아시아의 식료품 가격 폭등과 정책 옵션 - Click here for available text on the Internet

Rising food prices are now topping policymakers’ agenda in most developing countries in East Asia.  They are contributing to higher inflation, slowing the pace of poverty reduction, and raising concerns about civil unrest. A key reason for higher food prices are the advanced country biofuel policies.  They aim to promote a more climate-friendly source of energy, but have also induced a sharp increase in world demand for grains and in grain prices.

EN14 - Varady, Robert G., et al.  STRENGTHENING GLOBAL WATER INITIATIVES  (Environment, vol. 50, no. 2, March/April 2008, pp. 19-31) 깨끗한 물을 위한 지구촌의 노력과 과제 – Contact IRC for print copy

The growing global shortage of clean fresh water is one of the most serious environmental issues facing the world today, say these authors.  They analyze the global initiatives that have been at work for decades to resolve water issues, and suggest ways to improve them.  “Proficient at their best and weak and corrupt at their worst, the systems that govern the planning and management of water resources need attention,” the authors write.  A 2004 survey of water experts found overlap of purpose, proliferation of organizations, and imprecision of goals to be major problems in this network of organizations that operate regionally and globally to attempt to provide some solutions for water problems.  They suggest several means by which these organizations might attempt to address these inefficiencies, even while admitting that the initiatives “elude easy evaluation.”  Still, the authors credit these global water initiatives with providing important assistance to nation-states contending with local water issues.

EN16 – Sheppard, Kate.  THE GREEN GAP  (American Prospect, vol. 19, no. 5, May 2008, pp. 18-21) 그린(Green)경제가 해답이다 - Contact IRC for print copy

The city of Richmond, California, is wracked by poverty and violence, and is home to oil refineries and industrial sites with a long history of pollution and chemical spills.  In an effort to reverse the city’s toxic legacy, the municipal government is sponsoring Richmond BUILD, a program in which inner-city youths enroll for job training in energy efficiency, solar power and “green” construction.  The program highlights a fundamental change that is taking place in the environmental movement in the U.S.: environmental- and social-justice advocates are coming up with proposals to overhaul the fossil-fuel-powered economy and, at the same time, overcome the country’s economic and racial divides.  Low-income inner-city neighborhoods are most affected by toxic environmental pollution, yet have never been brought into the environmental movement, which has traditionally been the preserve of affluent well-educated Americans preoccupied with wilderness preservation.  The environmental justice movement has been spearheaded by individuals such as Van Jones, co-founder of the Oakland, Calif.-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who early on saw the potential of the “green” economy for inner-city youths.  Says Jones, “we’re going to have to have a major shift in the U.S. economy and culture in order to not just achieve sustainability, but survivability.”

US16 –  Carr, Nicholas.  IS GOOGLE MAKING US STUPID? (Atlantic Monthly. July/August 2008. Vol. 302 Issue 1, -56-63, 6p) 구글이 우리를 바보로 만드는가? - Click here for available text on the Internet

The article examines the effect of Internet use on the ways people read and process information. The ability of technology to shape the process of thought is explored. Distinctions are made between decoding text and deep reading. The effect of technological innovations on the writing style of Friedrich Nietsche and on industrial efficiency is discussed.

US17 –  Panagopoulos, Costas; Wielhouwer W., Peter.  POLLS AND ELECTIONS: THE GROUND WAR 2000-2004: STRATEGIC TARGETING IN GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNS (Presidential Studies Quarterly. Washington: Jun 2008. Vol. 38, Iss 2; pg. 347, 16 pgs) 여론조사와 선거: 2000-2004 미대선을 통해본 대중 선거의 전략 - Contact IRC for print copy

This article uses survey data from the National Election Studies to examine personal contacting and grassroots mobilization strategies in presidential election campaigns, focusing on the 2000 and 2004 elections. Consistent with widespread journalistic accounts, we find that respondents overall report higher levels of mobilization in 2004. We also find evidence of strategic targeting and mobilization and report on shifts in targeting strategies between the two election cycles.

US18 – Ganz, Scott; Hassett, Kevin.  LITTLE LEAGUE, HUGE EFFECT  (The American, vol. 2, no. 3, May/June 2008, pp. 64-67) 아들의 야구 경기가 중요한 이유 – Click here for available text on the Internet

The authors, both with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), writing in a publication of the AEI, believe that youth sports strengthen the economic, academic and social prospects of Americans.  Since almost all of life in a capitalist society involves some form of competition, young athletes learn the formula for success in a market-based system.  The weekly wages of college graduates who were high school athletes are generally higher than those of college graduates who did not play sports in high school.  Such athletes also outperform their peers throughout their lifetimes where hard work becomes one measure to determine success.  American children spend more time participating in athletics than Europeans; Americans learn on the playing fields that effort and success are connected. This partly explains why over 45 percent of all eligible American youth play in an agency-sponsored league, like Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, or locally-sponsored soccer.

US19 – Mathews, Jay.  BAD RAP ON THE SCHOOLS  (Wilson Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 2, Spring 2008, pp. 15-20) 공(公)교육인가 공(空)교육인가 - Click here for available text on the Internet

Mathews, an education reporter and columnist at The Washington Post, disputes a recently aired documentary called Two Million Minutes that suggests American students don’t study as long and as hard as their counterparts in India and China, and, as a result, the U.S. may be losing the economic race to these countries.  Mathews acknowledges that U.S. businesses are having trouble hiring skilled people and must often go abroad to find more, and that American high schools have not shown much improvement in math and reading in the last 30 years.  However, Mathews notes that the U.S. school system is greatly superior to those in China and India - the real problem is the bottom 30 percent of U.S. schools in urban and rural communities full of low-income children.  “Not only are we denying the children who attend them the equal education that is their right, but we are squandering almost a third of our intellectual capital,” he writes.

AR11– Bilger, Burkhard.  THE LAST VERSE: IS THERE ANY FOLK MUSIC STILL OUT THERE?  (New Yorker, April 28, 2008, pp. 52-63) 추억의 끝자락: 포크 뮤직은 어디에 있는가 - Contact IRC for print copy

The author joins Art Rosenbaum and Lance Ledbetter, collectors of folk music, on a search for the last few folk musicians and singers.  The searchers find octogenarians like Cora Mae Bryant and Mary Lomax who still sing old folk songs.  Yet this story is as much about the history of folk music and the searchers themselves.  Folk music is an oral tradition as old as America, originating in the Midwest, South and especially Appalachia, with many local styles.  In the early 20th century collectors like Cecil Sharp and others began to write down and record folk songs.  The 1920’s where a watershed time when folk songs were recorded and achieved commercial popularity.  By the 1930’s record sales dropped; however in the 1950’s and 1960’s there was a revival, which Rosenbaum joined by playing, recording and cataloging folk music.  Ledbetter represents a newer generation of folk music aficionados, and came to folk music in the 1990’s.  Ledbetter’s major contribution to folk music is Goodbye Babylon, an acclaimed collection over four years in the making.  Since then he and his wife have produced eight other folk music collections.  That Lance Ledbetter and Art Rosenbaum were able find folk music singers in their search means that folk music as living genre has not disappeared, yet.

AR12– Shivel, Gail.  SCIENCE AND THE HUMANITIES  (Choice, vol. 45, no. 9, May 2008, pp. 1451-1458, 1460-1461) 과학과 인류의 갈등은 어디까지 - Contact IRC for print copy

The author, a lecturer in English, University of Miami, believes that the widening gap between science and the humanities is actually quite a recent phenomenon, from Copernicus’s and Galileo’s challenges of the religious establishment during the scientific revolution to the over-optimistic embrace by the Victorians of the possibilities for scientific answers to all the world’s ills.  The author begins with a discussion of the early literature, beginning with ancient times through the Renaissance and up to the early 18th century and the Enlightenment, and a discussion on whether the 20th century saw a division between humanists and scientists.  The author explores the relationship between science and the mind, and science in the context of creative behavior.

AR13 - Sachs, Lloyd.  LAKEFRONT BATTLEGROUND (Downbeat, vol. 75, no. 5, May 2008, pp. 100-104) 시카고 재즈의 향연- Contact IRC for print copy

The Chicago Jazz Festival, which hosts a free jazz concert, showcasing some of America’s best jazz musicians, is about to turn 30.  The big crowds in attendance provide a lot of energy and excitement: “You try even harder than usual to be at the top of your game for the crowd,” says Chicago saxophonist Eric Schneider.  This year, the jazz festival will take place at the lakefront Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.  “Playing [in Chicago] when it’s getting to be nighttime and the lights in the city are coming on is quite striking,” says Sonny Rollins, who will be making his first appearance at the festival since 1992.  The festival has been known for encouraging innovative and pioneering jazz performances, and the organizers’ willingness to take chances with new music has brought on controversy, such as the Globe Unity Orchestra’s 45-minute avant-garde performance in 1987.  However, embracing virtually all jazz styles (“save smooth jazz”) has also contributed to the festival’s popularity and longevity.  At its thirty-year anniversary, the Chicago Jazz festival is as young and vital as ever.

Information Resource Center (IRC)
Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy Seoul
#10 Namyoung-dong,Yongsan-ku, Seoul, Korea (Map)
Telephone: (02) 397-4114, Fax: (02) 795-3606

The U.S. Embassy offices are closed on American and Korean holidays.